Armstrong Williams has posted an article at Townhall.com detailing the hidden costs of Obamacare that are already impacting Americans.
The article reports:
"Contrary to the president's assurance, unfortunately, the health care reform legislation is already causing a substantial increase in medical insurance premiums. We are also finding expensive provisions in this act that we did not know were there, including a hidden 3.8 percent sales tax on the sale of certain residential real estate and a burdensome Internal Revenue Service filing requirement on small business."
I don't think anyone who supported the passage of the bill was aware of the real estate taxes included--we don't think of real estate taxes as part of healthcare reform. Mr. Williams reports that based on anecdotal evidence from business owners, insurance brokers and the media, insurance premiums on policies renewed for 2010 and 2011 are increasing 20 percent to 40 percent. There are very obvious reasons for the increases. Insurance companies need to make a profit in order to stay in business. According to Carpe Diem, the website of Professor Mark J. Perry, a professor of economics and finance in the School of Management at the Flint campus of the University of Michigan, the current profit margin for health insurance companies is 3.3%. This profit margin ranks 86th on the "Profit Margin by Industries Chart." That does not represent excessive profit. The cost of doing business for health insurance companies will be greatly increased by Obamacare--it costs more to insure children up to age 26, it costs more to provide free or low cost preventive care, it costs more to insure people with pre-existing conditions, it costs more to end the limits on lifetime medical insurance claims. If you want a policy that includes these things, you are going to pay more for it. If you want a policy that covers you in case of illness or emergency, it would be much cheaper. Unfortunately, under Obamacare you are not allowed to purchase such a policy. One size fits all. Only it doesn't.
About that real estate tax, Mr. Williams points out:
"If middle-class Americans think they will escape this (real estate) tax, think again. At some point in the near future, inflation from the Federal Reserve printing money to finance the president's huge budget deficits will drive up the nominal price of housing. Even modest three-bedroom homes will sell for big nominal dollars. At that point the middle class will be ensnared with the tax. Look at history. The income tax was originally sold to the American people as only taxing the top 2 percent!
"Pelosi may have unintentionally taught Congress and the American people a lesson. Read a bill and understand the impact of the bill before you pass it. It is unlikely that the Democrat-controlled Congress wanted to pass a medical reform bill that kills jobs and impedes the country from recovering from the Great Recession. Unfortunately, in its haste to control 20 percent of the economy represented by health care, it has passed a "Jobs Reduction Act.""
If you would like to see this monstrosity of a bill repealed before it can do any permanent damage, vote for Republicans this November. Even if some Republicans have not sworn to repeal the bill, if we elect enough Republicans who have sworn to repeal the bill, we can defund it and get rid of it.
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